


Forgive Me

by Lazygrin



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Skin Deep Remix/ I know it's cliche
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-12-17 12:49:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11851923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lazygrin/pseuds/Lazygrin
Summary: AU law firm. A very brief Skin Deep remix. I'm so sorry.





	Forgive Me

**Author's Note:**

> I know that this has been done a thousand times before and it’s super super cliche, but I had to get this out of my system. First ever fic.

Belle wasn’t entirely sure when she first started to have the slightest twinge of feelings for him. It was possibly around the day when he came into work with a slightly slower step, and, if possible, an even sterner look, that seemed to be masking something deeper. Or sadder. She wasn’t quite sure.  
It may have been around the day when she had stumbled into him headfirst into the stairwell, nearly knocking the two of them down the flight, only to be saved by a quick grasp of his hand on the rail. She’d apologised of course, but he had brushed it off with mumbled ‘no matter’ and stepped neatly around her, smoothing the lapels of his jacket, before disappearing before she had even had a chance to register what had just happened.  
So, somewhere around then. But again, it had come on so gradually that she wasn’t quite sure.  
______________________________________________________________________________  
They both worked at the same firm, Belle was a lowly paralegal, practically forced there by her father, who happened to know the partners, and her rather large student debts that somehow she had not quite managed to get a hold of. She had entered the building with a sense of pride, almost resentment that she should be there. Belle wasn’t cut out to be a paralegal, but her dream job of working in a simple bookstore was just that. A dream.  
She had been introduced to him on her first day. Mr. Gold. No first name apparently, according to the other girls in the team. He had studied her with a set, firm look on his face as she took him all in, while in the background Mary Margaret was babbling away her personal details. Smart, dark fitted suit. Greying short hair and a striking face. She guessed that while he appeared elegant and charming to clients, he was essentially closed-off and isolated. Pure supposition, but somehow it felt right. His handshake was brief and his softly spoken ‘pleasure to meet you’ was deep and rich. She thought in an instant she had the measure of him, but when her blue eyes met his deep brown ones, she knew in an instant he was sizing her up as well.  
Belle wasn’t sure how she felt about this.  
_______  
The first few weeks passed well enough, pleasantries were exchanged on a daily basis, but nothing more. The door was always closed quickly after Belle left, and for some reason she couldn’t shake the feeling that he didn’t really like her. It almost felt like he was avoiding her. She bemoaned this fact to Ruby Lucas one day at lunch.  
‘I wouldn’t take it personally’ Ruby mumbled through her mouthful of pasta ‘he barely even knows the paralegals exist. It’s probably just you thinking that.’  
‘I know, I’m probably being over sensitive.’ Belle agreed while picking at her sandwich.  
‘Mmmm’ Ruby made an assenting noise. ‘Chances are he doesn’t even know your name. And to be fair, you don’t want him to. He’s cruel. Cold, you know? He doesn’t give a damn about anyone.’  
It made sense that the lawyers would feel that way about the paralegals, but it made the next days events very curious. After a group discussing regarding an important merger, a crowd of employees exited the conference room, when Belle realised she had forgotten her bag. Turning back she was about to re-enter when she heard Mr Gold and another lawyer, Victor Whale talking. To her surprise it was Gold’s voice she heard first.  
‘The new one, Belle French. Do you know much about her?’  
‘No, not really. Her father, Moe…do you know him? Well, he knows Regina of course, that’s how she ended up here. Nepotism abound at this place.’  
‘Well, she must be good for something if she has stayed.’  
‘Don’t know really. Common consensus is that she’s a beauty but a funny girl. Quiet. Not one for the-  
Belle knocked on the door, with only her slightly flushed face to betray that she had heard anything, asked if she could retrieve her bag, and quietly slipped out again, not stopping to hear if they said anything else. The entire time, Gold watched her with those deep, dark eyes, but his face gave away nothing. He certainly knew her name then.  
___________  
The next day, Belle was called into Golds office, to be faced with a mountain of paperwork.  
‘Ah, Miss French. Perhaps you could assist? I have a large amount of papers to go through and thought that you could help.’  
‘Of course!’ Belle smiled at him, and she thought she saw a glimmer of a smile back.  
‘Good. Well, perhaps we should start, as they say, at the beginning.’  
The work was tedious and slow. At first he rarely said anything that wasn’t about the work, but eventually, the conversation began to turn.  
‘Where did you say you went to school, Miss French?’  
‘Again, please call me Belle, and I went to Brown.’  
‘Prestigious’ He murmured.  
‘Maybe, but I haven’t really ended up where I wanted to be.’  
‘And where did you want to be?’  
‘Oh, anywhere else but here. Travelling, writing, reading. I always thought I would end up in the great wide somewhere, but father always seemed to want me at home.’  
He grunted slightly eyes fixed on the papers, but Belle could have sworn she heard under his breath the whispered ‘understandable.’  
_________  
Soon, they were talking about everything. Music, art, books, law, other employees, their hobbies, Belles personal life. They spoke every day after that. Belle swore that lunches that were too big for one person would magically appear on his desk, that she couldn’t possibly refuse. Their hands often grazed as they picked at the same dishes, their thighs touched as they sat tightly side by side on a desk. One day she had knocked his prized tea-set off the edge and chipped the rim of a blue and white cup, and instead of his ire, she only found a laughing smile and the assurance that it was ‘just a cup’.  
One lunchtime, Belle has suddenly become very aware of his smell, of the shape of his body and the feel of his fingertip as it tapped the back of her hand, drawing her attention to an article he had found that might interest her. She had moved forward to share the screen of his computer and found their faces to be almost unbearably close together and she knew then that this wasn’t just friendship. Not on her side anyway.  
Gold just kept telling himself that he was lucky to have someone to talk to at all.  
________  
Regina had been watching Belle for a few weeks now. She had clocked the way Belle had been looking at Gold, and the interest he had shown in Belle. She had seen the lunches and the glances, the eagerness for Belle to be assigned to any of his cases. Regina couldn’t quite pin down the feelings she was having. Jealousy? Resentment? Spite? But she knew that this new flimsy paralegal certainly wasn’t getting what she could not herself have.  
She sauntered into Golds office, on the pretence of reviewing a case. Sighing heavily, she laid the first blow.  
‘I just can’t seem to get any of the Paralegals to do anything right.’  
‘I haven’t found that myself.’ Gold countered, flicking through the brief with deft fingers.  
‘Well of course you haven’t, you always seem to be paired with the French girl. Beatrice, is it?’  
Golds eyes looked up from the paper. ‘Belle. And she has been doing a superior job recently.’  
‘Of course she has!’ Regina laughed ‘For you. She knows that you’ll put in a good word for her if a promotion comes up, or maybe you’ll recommend her for a senior position elsewhere.’  
‘I may not know her well’ Gold countered ‘But I don’t believe that is her motivation for doing a good job.’  
‘Oh, don’t be naive, of course it is. All the girls here want is a leg up, Gold and they’ll do anything to get it. Even the pwetty ones.’ Regina pouted and mocked, as Gold bent his head again to the papers in front of him, not continuing the conversation.  
After a short silence, he spoke. ‘I think this case has a fighting chance of being dismissed.’ Gold offered.  
‘I’m so glad you agree.’ Regina smiled.  
__  
Belle stepped into his office, knowing what she wanted to do. She had therefore dressed for the occasion. Wearing a soft white blouse that flattered her frame and her hair loose around her shoulders, the door creaked loudly. Almost everyone else had left for the day.  
Gold was stood by the window, his back against the wall, holding a pen in his hands, twisting it as he was thinking about something. He gave a small smile as she stepped towards him, with paperwork in her hands  
‘Ah, I’m glad you’re back. Good.’ Belle raised her eyebrows at him and her mouth twitched into a semi smile. His face then dropped. ‘I needed that file.’ Gold stepped towards her, holding his hand out to claim the folder, but Belle made no move for a second, and only stared at him.  
‘Belle, the file, please.’  
She placed it slowly on the desk beside her and moved round to the other side of the table, where he stood by the window. She didn’t say a word, but as her small frame edged towards him he seemed to be put on his guard.  
‘Thank you. That will be all.’  
‘That’s very formal.’  
‘This is still a workplace.’  
I thought we had transcended the pettiness of office life?’ Belle queried with a smirk as she stepped even closer.  
‘To a degree.’ Gold almost gulped as he started to realise the proximity between them now was a dangerous as it was the day before. ‘But that doesn’t mean we forgo all propriety.’  
‘No.’ Belle agreed. ‘But technically it is after six. I finish work at six. So I am not at work.’  
‘True’ Gold replied slowly as the gap closed even further.  
‘In that case. It can be assumed that whatever I do now is of my own free will. And is what I want to do.’ Belle breathed.  
‘So it would seem.’ They were toe to toe now, and Gold felt like she was everywhere. Her smell, her breath, enveloping him.  
‘You should believe it’ Belle whispered as Gold tilted his head forward ever so slightly.  
It was Belle who tipped the scales, as she wrapped her arms around his neck to pull him close to her, and it was Belle who brushed her lips against his, softly at first, feeling the warmth and aching for more. But it was Gold who took this first sweet kiss and make it something more. His lips opened as he kissed her, running his hands down her back to land on her waist, he pushed forward to press his chest tightly up against her, turning on the spot to lean her against the wall.  
Breathing deeply, Gold pulled away for a moment to take in the woman before him, so close to him and so, so warm. For half a second, they looked into each other’s eyes, before they both leaned in again and their lips and tongues met, warm and wet. Belles’ hands grabbed at his shirt, grasping the fabric to pull him closer as he pulled her to him, with one hand on her back, the other on her upper thigh.  
He was kissing Belle. The same thought ran through his head again and again until another replaced it. She kissed him. Why would she kiss him? What did she want? She must want something. Round and round they ran until that nastiest thought of all seeped in, borne of Regina’s spite.  
‘All the girls here want is a leg up, Gold and they’ll do anything to get it. Even the pwetty ones.’  
Gold pulled back, breaking the kiss and stepping away, ignoring the flushed skin on Belles’ cheeks and chest and the deep gasping breaths she was taking. He ignored his own stirrings and turned his back to Belle, to regain his composure.  
Belles’ smiling face quickly dropped. ‘I…I thought this is what you wanted?’  
‘This is still my place of business. And I take my business very seriously. Therefore I can’t have my.. my…. Subordinates’ Belle gasped at the word ‘taking liberties like this, thinking they can twist my actions to bend to their will.’  
‘I…I wasn’t!’  
‘Yes you were, Miss French. You came in here with no other view.’ Gold was sneering now, his eyes had gone dark, and his face looked grim, harsh even, his lips pressed together in a line. ‘And in view of that, I think its best you leave. Leave now, in fact.’  
‘You don’t understand, I –‘  
‘Did you come in here, with that intent Miss French?  
Belle was so stupefied couldn’t deny it, and mutely nodded, frozen for a second.  
‘I suppose I should have expected no less. Leave.’  
His back turned to her once more, and Belle made her way towards the door, head held high and proud, angry at his arrogance and stubbornness and the rejection that she felt to her bones.  
It was only when she got to her bed, tucked away deep in the covers that she began to sob like her lungs would give out, as she felt her heart break.  
_____  
Belle didn’t go to work the next day. Or the day after. When she finally braced herself to enter the building, Gold was nowhere to be seen either, and by the end of the day Regina had Belles resignation letter on her desk.  
She wasn’t sure how she did it but she made it through the week after not seeing him once. Her cases had been reassigned and on her last day, as she said goodbye to Emma, Ruby, Mary Margaret and David, she could have sworn she saw a glimpse of the silvery hair and dark suit, but convinced herself otherwise.  
The argument with her father had been a blinder. He has suggested that her snobby attitude towards the firm had caused her to quit and if that was the case he wasn’t going to support her for a single further day. Belle packed a bag, taking what she needed and crashed at her friend Merida’s place, finally out into the great, wide somewhere.  
____  
It had been three months since the night in the office, and Gold had regretted every moment of it. Heart-sore and sick he had wished the cruel and cold words unsaid the second they had come from his mouth. She wasn’t like that. She had been kind to him and he had convinced himself that… but it didn’t matter because she was gone. He felt shattered in a way he didn’t know how to describe.  
Regina’s smugness knew no bounds. She had chased the little flirt away with one brief conversation. No-one knew Gold like she did and Belle had played directly into her hands. So much so that she couldn’t resist poking the bear one last time, as she strutted into his office.  
‘Moe French is getting me down. He’s been absolutely furious with me ever since his daughter waltzed out of here. And furious with her of course’  
Gold made no response, but tapped his pen against his desk irritably.  
‘So much so, he has even made it abundantly clear that she may never return to his home again.’ Regina grinned, as pleased as a Cheshire cat.  
‘I beg your pardon?’  
‘She’s left him. Beatrice.’  
‘Belle’  
‘Whatever. She wasn’t cut out for it. But Moe is insistent we take her back.’  
‘She… is coming back?’  
‘No! No of course not. She’s working in a shabby bookstore, rather than enter the legal profession again. I can’t say I blame her. Best to leave her be. Don’t you think?  
‘Yes. Of course.’  
‘Don’t worry Gold. I’ll find you a new girl.’ Regina smirked again as she back out of his office, but she didn’t see the light in Golds eyes, or the grip of his hand on the table. He knew then when he had to do.  
___  
It took Gold two weeks to find out exactly which shabby bookstore Regina had meant. Asking Moe was out of the question and he certainly wasn’t going to anyone else for help.  
The bell tinkled as he entered ‘East Side Antiquarian Books’ and he glanced around to see the back of Belles’ head as she was shelving some new items, her chestnut hair in plaits, wearing a yellow blouse. He stood and waited until she finally turned and saw him. She stopped dead in her tracks, and her mouth fell open.  
‘What… what are you doing here?’ she gasped.  
He stepped towards her, palms facing upwards. ‘Please Belle, don’t send me away. I need – I need to talk to you.’  
Belle shook her head lips pursed angrily. ‘No. No I don’t want you to –  
‘Please Belle. Please.’  
She was silent then, arms folded across her chest, face wrinkled into a frown.  
‘I… I…’ He stopped and wrung his hands together, the silence between them oppressive, where they had once spoken so much.  
‘I was so wrong that night. I was scared. Scared that you were only showing me any kindness because you wanted something from me. I was cruel and rude and so, so horrible and I need you to know. I didn’t mean it. I… I did want what you wanted. I do want it.’  
Belles face softened, but she still didn’t speak so he continued.  
‘I miss you Belle. I miss the way we were. I miss seeing you everyday and I miss the way we talked and-‘  
‘I miss you, too.’ Belle cut in.  
Gold looked up from his shoes and saw her smile. He smiled back as she said it again, softly this time.  
‘I missed you, too.’  
Gold looked her in the eye and pleaded - ‘Forgive me, Belle’  
_______________  
Some weeks later, as they walked down the busy street, Belle surprised Euan with a question she had been thinking about herself.  
‘When exactly did you fall for me?’ Belle smiled as she grasped his hand, lacing her fingers with his.  
‘I can’t quite pin a place or time on it,’ he countered. ‘But you know, it may have been when you damn near knocked me down that stairwell.’


End file.
